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Topic Review (Newest First)

01-13-2013 10:48 PM

sphack

Unfortunately the glass is still sitting in their crates in the garage. The fall was full of many other projects. Today for example I'm lining a closet with cedar. Off to lowes to pick up more

Anyway I might be able to find time soon or else he glass might get buried.

01-13-2013 10:42 PM

kwheeler91

So uh... how did this come out?

09-19-2012 08:36 PM

sphack

Yes, I believe it is called a coast to coast. Saw reference in another thread to that name and it makes sense.

09-19-2012 06:10 AM

ua hua

As far as overflow designs the bean animal design is superior to other designs for many reasons. Not only are they virtually silent but they are safer, beings that they have an emergency drain. If your still in the planning stages I would try to work on the bean animal setup even if you have to drill a couple more holes. I'm not sure I understand what your other idea for an overflow was but I'm assuming you meant using a coast to coast overflow. This will be very satisfying when you get it all finished and I'm glad to see you are taking your time planning this build. Here is a good thread from a member that used the bean animal design on his tank.

I've been reading a lot about sumps and drain pipes and reef tanks and planted tanks w/ wet/dry filters and and and...

So far, I'm leaning to the bean animal stand pipe solution. Many people recommend it and I like the idea of a quiet tank (I'm currently running canister). The only problem is that the tanks are already setup to have two overflows with one drain and one return each...

A coworker who is in the same boat (but with his tank up and running) brainstormed over this and we came up with a solution: turn the two overflow chambers into one. For these tanks I'm debating one big overflow and/or drilling more holes. I've also considered the long high channel overflow idea.

Since the tanks are not assembled I could always get the rear glass drilled (would work great for planted as well) and get an undrilled bottom. Or drill more holes into the bottom and potentially only use one side...

Thoughts? Ideas?

09-19-2012 05:24 AM

aweeby

wow, this is nuts. subscribed. This reeks of epicness.

09-18-2012 08:50 PM

Curt_914

I am going to follow this as well!! Let me know on the glass as I wouldnt mind one as well!

I initially was looking at getting one. However with transporting the glass ~250 miles, I would have needed to buy/build something to hold the glass for the trip. Talking to the seller, he really wanted to get rid of everything and talked me into buying all three. With that, I got the existing A-frame and crate. My wife really likes this hobby as well, especially the products of the work, and really likes watching the little fishies. My 3 year old daughter really wants a "yellow fish"... My cats, well, they just want fish.

So yea, I bought three sets. If I break or screw one up, oh well. If I need to get rid of some of the glass, I already have a few people locally who was interested. If the build goes well, I'll sell them as full tanks to subsidize the hobby. Who knows...

08-09-2012 07:03 PM

RayT

Subscribed, this most definitely will be epic!

08-09-2012 02:55 PM

Silky

looks like it'll be alot of fun to build. I'm sure it'll be that much more rewarding knowing you built it from scratch as well. Looking forward to seeing it all put together.

08-09-2012 10:55 AM

Obakemono

This is going to be interesting. Sub'ed

08-09-2012 06:25 AM

dubels

Wait so you bought all three?

08-09-2012 06:20 AM

ua hua

This will be a cool and challenging project. I'm looking forward to seeing this come together.

08-09-2012 06:15 AM

sphack

The glass has arrived!

A week and a half ago, I made the trip across the divide to pick up the tank glass. Boy that stuff is heavy and beautiful. What is not pictured is the 60" x 12" x 30" crate containing 3 curved tank fronts!

When loading this in the truck, we used a winch to lift up the crate and the A-frame loaded with the 6 large pieces of glass.

Unloading was a different story... Every piece of glass was unloaded, stored in the garage while unloading the create and A-frame. Then each put back in their place. A few hours later, everything is nice and safe in the garage.

07-11-2012 05:02 PM

sphack

For this tank, I'm not starting from scratch. Somebody else in Colorado had designed and built this tank as a marine tank. He specifically wanted a 5' tank and since nobody makes one decided to have the glass slumped for the curve front. As I understand it, the setup fee was the majority of the cost so instead of buying one set of glass, he bought 4. He built the first tank and has been running it for over 6 years as a reef tank. The other 3 sets of glass are still packaged in the shipping crates. Due to life circumstances (and a massive tank crash due to an extended power failure), he is selling everything.

I'm planning on making the trip across the mountains in about 10 days to pick up the glass, plans, Autocad drawings, primer, and whatever other pieces/jigs/research he has to hand off. I'm effectively the inheritor of a great looking tank. I'll ask permission to repost one of his pictures.

I didn't realize it, but yes, I've not seen any bow front builds posted. Pictures will come, I promise.

I like to build, to make things. That is one of the big aspects of fish keeping that has really appealed to me - I get to make cabinets for the base, engineer the filtration, CO2, filling/draining, lighting, timers, electical, etc. Being able to say, "Look, I made this; all of this."

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